Dist. 21
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/1/d/21/q/bon-sent-I-d21-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXI.

#### Cap. I. *How it can be said: the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone, since they are inseparable.*

Here arises a question drawing its origin from what has been said before. For it has been said above that the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone, is as great as those three together, and that two or three persons together are not anything greater than one alone. Therefore Augustine asks in the sixth book *On the Trinity*: "How can these things rightly be said, since neither is the Father alone, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, but always and inseparably both the Son is with the Father, and the Father with the Son, and the Holy Spirit with both? — for these three persons are inseparable." To which Augustine in the same place responds thus: "We say that the Father alone is Father, not because He is separated from the Son or from the Holy Spirit, but in saying this we signify that those who are with Him are not Father." For the Father alone is Father. Which is not said because He is alone, that is, without the Son or the Holy Spirit, but by this the Son and the Holy Spirit are excluded from the company of paternity. So also when it is said: the Son alone is Son, or the Holy Spirit alone is the Holy Spirit, the Son is not divided from the Father, nor the Holy Spirit from both, but the Father and the Holy Spirit are excluded from the company of the filial property, and the Father and the Son from the company of the processional property. When therefore it is said: the Father alone is as great as those three together, by what is said *alone* the Father is not separated from the others, but this is the sense: the Father alone — that is, the Father, who is so Father that He is neither Son nor Holy Spirit — is as great, etc. Understand similarly when it is said: the Son alone is, or the Holy Spirit alone is. "The Father therefore is called *alone*, as Augustine says in the same place, because no one but Himself is there Father," and the Son alone, because no one but Himself is there Son, and the Holy Spirit alone, because no one but Himself is there the Holy Spirit.

#### Cap. II. *Whether it ought to be said: the Father alone is God, or the Son alone is God, or the Holy Spirit alone is God; or rather, the Father is the only God, the Son is the only God, the Holy Spirit is the only God.*

After this it is asked whether, just as it is said: the Father alone is Father, or the Son alone is Son, so it can be said: the Father alone is God, or the Son alone is God, and likewise of the Holy Spirit; or, the Father is the only God, the Son is the only God. To which we say that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is called and is one God, and this Trinity together is properly said to be the only God, just as the only wise, the only powerful. But it does not seem that it ought to be said by us using our own words, except where the language of authority occurs: the Father alone is God, or the Father is the only God; so we speak of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Whence Augustine in the sixth book *On the Trinity* says: "Since we have shown how it can be said *the Father alone* or *the Son alone*, that sentence is to be considered by which it is said that the only true God is not the Father alone, but the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Behold, you have it that the Father alone is not to be said to be the only true God. Likewise in the same place: "If anyone should ask whether the Father alone is God; how shall we reply? — that He is not, unless perchance we say thus, that the Father is indeed God, but that He is not the only God? But let us say that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the only God." Behold, here too you have it that the Father ought not to be called the only God; and yet here some wish to take it only on the side of the subject, but on the side of the predicate, if it is so, they concede that the Father is the only God. But from Augustine's words it seems shown that properly the whole Trinity ought to be called the only God. And this Trinity, as Augustine says against Maximinus, is understood, when the Apostle says: *Blessed and only powerful*; and there: *To the only wise God*; and: *To the only invisible*

*God*. For these are not to be taken of the Father alone, as Maximinus and other heretics contended, but of the Trinity. So also that: *He alone has immortality* — since according to right faith the Trinity itself is one only God, blessed, powerful, wise, invisible. Whence Augustine in the same place: "Since one God is the Trinity, let this be for us the solution of the question, that we understand the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is one and the only God, to be the only wise God, the only powerful."

#### Cap. III. *How the Trinity is called the only God, although it is with the holy spirits and souls.*

But again it is asked, how we call the Trinity itself the only God, since it is with the holy spirits and souls. To which Augustine in the sixth book *On the Trinity* responds, saying thus: "We call the Trinity the only God, although it is always with the holy spirits and souls, but we say *only* because nothing other than the Trinity itself is God. For those are not God with it" — nor any other things, but the Trinity itself only; not those, nor others, is God.

"Nevertheless, as Augustine says, even if the things stated were said of the Father alone, the Son or the Holy Spirit would not however be excluded, because *those three are one*, just as in the Apocalypse it is read of the Son that *He has a name written, which no one knows but Himself*. For the Father or the Holy Spirit is not separated from there. And when it is said: *No one knows the Father except the Son*; the Father[?] and the Holy Spirit are not separated from there, since they are inseparable." Sometimes also the Father and the Son are named, and the Holy Spirit is left in silence; as Truth, speaking to the Father, says: *That they may know Thee and Him whom Thou hast sent, Jesus Christ, to be one true God*. "Why therefore," says Augustine, "did He keep silent about the Holy Spirit? Because it follows that wherever one is named, just as the Father and the Son, by such peace adhering to the One there is also understood the Peace itself, although it be not mentioned." When therefore one of these is named, the rest also are understood; which occurs in many places of Scripture.

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